o the sea breezes, besides being upon an
elevation.

Let us also invite the reader to embark upon an excursion; but in
place of hugging the sea coast by means of a coach and four, we will
turn our faces inland by railway toward the olden capital of Kandy, in
the heart of the island.

CHAPTER XI.

The Ancient Capital of Kandy.--An Artificial Lake.--The
Great River of Ceylon.--Site of the Capital of the Central
Province.--On the Way from Colombo to Kandy.--The Tiny
Musk-Deer.--The Wild Boar.--Native Cabins.--From the Railway
Car Windows.--The Lotus.--Destructive White Ants and their
Enemies.--Wild Animals.--The Mother of Twins.--A Little
Waif.--A Zigzag Railway.--An Expensive Road to
build.--"Sensation Rock" with an Evil History.--Grand Alpine
Scenery.

Kandy, the Maha-neura, or "great city," of the Singhalese, one of the
ancient capitals of Ceylon, is beautifully situated in the bosom of
the verdant hills in the central province of the island, just about
half way between the east and west coasts, a little more than seventy
miles north of Colombo. Here the town nestles on a bend of the
Maha-velle-Ganga ("great sandy river"), which nearly surrounds the old
city at a distance of three miles from its centre. It became the
capital of the island in 1592. As it was repeatedly captured and
burned by the Portuguese, Dutch, and English, it presents no
architectural monuments with any pretension to antiquity. Here we are
about seventeen hundred feet above sea level, beside a spacious,
though artificial lake, which represents a small portion of the grand
system of irrigation for which Ceylon was so famous through a score of
centuries. There is no natural lake worthy of the name in the
country, though there are numerous ponds, large and small, here and
there, especially in the southern part of the island. In the centre of
this large sheet of water, with its charming aspect of repose and
freshness, is a tiny island, where the last king of Kandy, who was a
notorious tyrant, established his harem with true oriental lavishness.
It is now improved as a safe place for the storage of gunpowder and
other explosive war materials. At least, it was formerly thus
appropriated, though perhaps it is not so now. The infamous sovereign
referred to, Sri Wikrema Raja Singha, at whose death ended a long and
famous line of kings, was outrageous beyond all precedent. He was
accustomed to behead